All-female crew lands plane in Saudi Arabia, a country where they're forbidden to drive

By Adam Taylor

Updated14 April 2016 - 01:19pmfirst published 16 March 2016 - 03:36am

An image shared by Royal Brunei's Instagram account in February shows the airline's first all-female flight crew sitting in the cabin of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Royal Brunei announced the introduction of its first all-female flight crew, making it the latest in a string of airlines to mark the milestone.

However, it wasn't just the pilots' gender that brought attention: it was where they were flying to.

Royal Brunei Airline's first all-female flight crew, sitting in the cabin of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Photo: Royal Brunei Airlines Instagram

At the time the photograph was taken, Captain Sharifah Czarena and her two female first officers were about to fly from Brunei to Jeddah, the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia - a country where women are not allowed to drive.

Although the image was initially shared three weeks ago, it gained traction after being shared this week on Reddit under the headline "An all-female crew lands an airliner into a country they're not allowed to drive in."

In practice, this isn't always adhered to - Bedouin women and women in the southern provinces often drive, regardless of the fact that they cannot get licences - but the ban on female drivers is still a potent symbol of the various restrictions on women in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia's official attitudes to female pilots aren't as strict as you might expect, though. In 2014, Hanadi al-Hindi became the first Saudi woman to be licensed to fly in the kingdom, and she has since been followed by others. Her licence came a year after billionaire Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal had cited her flying ability as evidence that Saudi women should be allowed to drive.

Despite this, Saudi women have been detained for driving cars as recently as 2014.